personal opinion?

We students have the right toa non-threatening aca- demic environment.

In the professional field of teaching, working together as a team is a vital component. This should go with- out saying. If the various faculties wish to have the respect of the student body them this element of working as a team must be present.

Is Professor Vaughn Jelliffe’s sub jective perspective to be allowed to hinder our quality of teaching?

Signed; A student concerned aboutour future, Rose Wolf

Dear editor and students

It’s no wonder the ‘‘Campus Women’’ column of March 19 was unsigned. Both the style and the research are so inept that as a former staff member of the student publication on the same campus, I’m astonished it was even submitted.

Long ago, your campus was my home away from home for four years; the faculty and students were my surrogate family.

At that time there was only a handful of women students. We participated with the male students on an equal footing in a wide range of activities. They were not our enemies. They were more like brothers (just as aggravating, and justas lovable).

There were no student loans and bursaries then so we co-eds knew how precious was our opportunity to attend university and we were determined to learn and to achieve. We did both with distinction, setting high academic standards and friendship in the process. We did it on our own mezits without compromising our integrity as women.

Surely today’s women students are as capable as we were. Surely they can see through the nonsense in such resources as Vaughn Jelliffe’s ‘‘report’’ on those ‘‘dangerous Right Wing Women’’, written in 1986 forthe PEI Advisory Council on the Status of

Women.

It reads like an inferior version of Karen Dubinsky’s paper, adapted to PEI with blatant disregard for the facts. While Dubinsky’s was wrong, it was very well written. But Jelliffe’s version is one of the wildest

UPEI X-P RESS

April 9, 1992

feminists to refer scornfully to any woman who

doesn’t agree with them), it zeroed inon only one group: Realwomen.

What made her paper particulary ludicrous was that

there was no Realwomen chapter on PE[ at the time.

As far as Jelliffe and the Advisory Council knew, the only RW member in the province was Dianne Porter, — the Chairperson of the Council, who (after signinga : statement saying she shared all our beliefs) had joined Realwomen to obtain out literature and mailings. : (She didn’t havea membership list, but I did, and she - toned down her attacks considerably when I threatened to expose her in the local papers.)

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But isn’t it a little strange to use tax payers’ dollars to insult discredit and otherwise shoot down anor- ganization that as far as they knew counted only their own Chairperson among its members?? (If Jelliffe did it free, then the Council certainly got what they paid for.)

The report is filled with distortions, inaccuracies, and — misrepresentations. When I pointed them outina

series of Letters to the Editor at the time, Jelliffe’s responses further demonstrated a warped view of , man-woman relationships. Those letters should bein _ our file in the Library, for I put them there. If they 4 are gone, we can replace them. s

One direct result of Jelliffe’s attacks in 1986-76 was _ that a few months later the PEI members of Realwomen formed a provincial chapter, of which I was president until six months ago. We were 30 members then; we are now over 400 and growing. ' Without Jelliffe’s ‘‘help’’ we probably wouldn’t have - bothered. ‘

Readers should be aware that when we point out that — Ms. Jelliffe distorts RW positions, she tells us we don’t know what we stand for. She proceedstotell — us what SHE says we stand for, and then attacks her — own creation. i

I’ve been on the National Board of RW for five years, helping to shape and express our policy. AndI say 0 this writer what I said to V. Jelliffe in 1987: Don't - try to tellus what we are saying. We know what we’ re saying, but you obviously don’t. We also knov what YOU’RE saying, its longtermimplications. Since this letter is already long, I'll mention onl